The 22nd Annual Ladder Ladder Competition

The LADDER LADDER Comp! It’s back! Again! But what the hell – I mean heck (sorry Mum) – is it?

The LADDER LADDER Competition is simple (a bit like me, many would say). It’s a comp that requires you to do no more than to write down (or type) the names of the 18 AFL teams ONCE for the ENTIRE season. How easy is that?

Oh, and you do have pay $5 to enter. But look what you get for that $5:

* a weekly update on how your ladder is going against the REAL ladder AND everybody else’s

* your chance to pit yourself against the ladders of “so called experts” from the various media

* ladders from obscurely named “celebrities” such as Chance Fateman, Yrag Legov and Benjamin Button

* your chance to win hundreds of dollars!

But don’t take my word for it, listen to what some of previous “ladderists” had to say about this comp:

“As good as anything I have seen” LC

“Great stuff” TI

“Ladder Ladder is the best footy tipping comp in the world… we make our selections and then forget about tipping for the entire season… and spend a delicious seven or eight months watch our punt come home.” JK

“Have I paid, yet?” MP

“If you only enter one ladder competition this year it’ll probably be this one” AG

“Don’t take this personally, but are you insane?” PS

“You must have a lot of time on your hands” DC

“You are one damaged piece of meat” JW

“Didn’t I read these same comments in last year’s promo?” SA

“Oh, Christ! Here we go again!” QW

“You’ve lost me again” JW

“But I’d be no good at this”

Don’t be so sure. There have been years when the LADDER LADDER Competition has been won by first-time entrants!

“So when do I have to submit my ladder by?”

All ladders need to be submitted prior to the start of the season which this year will be on SATURDAY MARCH 24th at 7:30PM. That’s not much time, but that’s the beauty of this comp. It doesn’t take that long to put down the names of the 18 AFL teams in some kind of order. Of course you COULD spend hours pondering over where each team will finish (and you people out there know who you are!) only to be beaten by someone who spent less than two minutes on the entire exercise. It’s entirely up to you.

Get cracking! And tell your friends and family to send one in too!

LADDERS CAN BE EMAILED TO andrew.gigacz@gmail.com. Details on how to pay will then be forwarded to you.

BORING BITS

The format of the comp remains the same as ever. For those of you who are newcomers, a detailed description of how it works appears further down the page (see “LADDER COMP 101″). The inherent beauty of this competition is, of course, the fact that entrants need to submit their ladders once only prior to the season starting, before sitting back and relaxing and observing the weekly progress of their efforts. It’s a kind of “set-it-and-forget-it” footy tipping comp.

As always the entry fee is $5 per person, to be received as early as possible in the season, with prizes to be distributed amongst the top three place-getters (50%, 35% and 15% of the pool respectively), after the lucky wooden-spooner receives their money back. Payment can be made to me in person or anybody can deposit directly into my bank account. (These details will be provided to entrants who email me their ladder at andrew.gigacz@gmail.com.)

LADDER COMP 101 – A basic rundown for those who’ve never before partaken.

The object of this game is to predict the full AFL ladder as you believe it will look at season’s end. By “season’s end”, we are referring to the POST-GRAND FINAL ladder. This obviously means the winner of the GF in position number one, with loser in second-place. Positions 3-8 are determined by the official AFL method, in which the losers in each of the first three weeks of the finals are placed 7th and 8th, 5th and 6th, and 3rd and 4th. The ladder position as at Round 23 decides which of the two teams finishes in the higher spot in each of those three weeks. Positions 9-18 obviously don’t change after Round 23.

All you need to do is submit the 18 teams in the order you believe they will finish. A score will then be allocated based on the difference between your ladder and the actual ladder. For example if you select Essendon to finish 7th and they finish 11th, you will have 4 points (11 minus 7) awarded “against” you. This is done for each team and your score totalled. Using this method the lower your score, the better you are doing. A perfect ladder, with all 18 teams in their correct positions will achieve a score of zero.

As a guide, the 2011 scores ranged from 40 (the winner) to 94 (wooden-spooner), although these can very from year to year depending on unexpected rises and falls by the various teams. And this year provides the added complication of a 18th team, too.

I will endeavour to provide weekly updates via email so you can track the progress of your ladder against other experts.

Q & A

I’ve probably forgotten to mention something so please email me at andrew.gigacz@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Please pass this link on to anyone who might be interested in joining in. All welcome.

Sorry, Smokie. Although it might seem implicit by exclusion that those Knackers I have not mentioned are NOT legendary, it’s entirely untrue. You’re ALL legends to me – especially those that get their ladders in early!

But here is something to ponder. By my calculations 10 wins will make the 8, and 5-7 teams will finish on 10 wins. So let me say that those 10-win teams may be out of order as I’m not strong on percentage.

And for those of you who need “time” to work on their ladders, a message: I spoke to both of last year’s joint-winners today and they each confirmed that they had spent NO MORE THAN 5 MINUTES on their winning entries at the start of last season.

Just a quick word of thanks to all those who submitted an entry. I have received at least160 entries and will probably uncover a few more when I retrawl through my emails.

That means this will be the BIGGEST YEAR EVER in Ladder Ladder history! I will send out an email with payment details later this week. You are also welcome to handover a fiver to me at this Thursday’s launch lunch.

And look out for the Round 1 Ladder Ladder update at some stage next week.

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